by Charlaine Harris (304 pgs)
Rating: 3
Sookie Stackhouse is a waitress at a bar in rural Louisiana but she's also a telepath plagued by the constant awareness of everyone's thoughts. Vampires, however, as it turns out are telepathic blanks to her which is much better than knowing what people are thinking all the time and very attractive in a potential mate. Cue Bill the vampire.
Dead Until Dark is part of the new vampire romance/mystery genre. Lucky for us Harris is a decent writer. Sookie and Bill are both immediately interesting characters. The premise is, if not believable, pretty compelling and the mystery was pretty decent although there were not many opportunities for the reader to figure it out ahead of the character. Actually there was no way for the reader to figure it out first, so I would suggest reading this for the mystery aspect. I think the series has potential.
Recommended to people who like the Anita Blake series but got tired of the supernatural orgies.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
56. How To Be Good
by Nick Hornby (305 pgs)
Rating: 5
Katie Carr is a doctor. She cares about people. She cares about world issues. She tries very hard 'to be good.' And she is good to. Isn't she? Ok she doesn't invite homeless people into her home or give away all her excess income but she can still be good. Right? Right!? One would think so but when her husband goes from first class prick to reborn secular saint, he challenges her sense of comparative goodness.
How to be Good is hilarious and sad. It challenges ideas of goodness particularly in contrast to meeting one's own needs. While it does make a lot of very good points I think the most interesting facet was in how it pointed out how difficult it is to argue with the righteous. We know that we need to take care of ourselves and deserve to have the luxuries we work for, but it's hard to argue that when someone pulls a 'but people are starving in India.' How do you defend yourself without feeling like a prick and is it even possible to?
Recommended for people who like to dwell on the grey.
Rating: 5
Katie Carr is a doctor. She cares about people. She cares about world issues. She tries very hard 'to be good.' And she is good to. Isn't she? Ok she doesn't invite homeless people into her home or give away all her excess income but she can still be good. Right? Right!? One would think so but when her husband goes from first class prick to reborn secular saint, he challenges her sense of comparative goodness.
How to be Good is hilarious and sad. It challenges ideas of goodness particularly in contrast to meeting one's own needs. While it does make a lot of very good points I think the most interesting facet was in how it pointed out how difficult it is to argue with the righteous. We know that we need to take care of ourselves and deserve to have the luxuries we work for, but it's hard to argue that when someone pulls a 'but people are starving in India.' How do you defend yourself without feeling like a prick and is it even possible to?
Recommended for people who like to dwell on the grey.
Update
Sorry...things have gotten away from me and I'm at least a half dozen book reviews behind.
I believe I'm also seeing the collapse of the list system. It's a lot of fun but it's beginning to feel very restrictive so I may just say I'm going to still be persuing the lists but I think I'll be reading many many things off list as well. I'll start catching up as well over the next few days.
I believe I'm also seeing the collapse of the list system. It's a lot of fun but it's beginning to feel very restrictive so I may just say I'm going to still be persuing the lists but I think I'll be reading many many things off list as well. I'll start catching up as well over the next few days.
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